Women, feminism, and geek culture

World-Record Linkspam (10th August, 2012)

Frustrations of an Asian American Whedonite: “Would you ever tell a story that purported to have major elements of American gay culture, without having a single gay character in-frame for more than 3 seconds? What about a show that claimed some feminist themes, but cast only men, with women barely seen and never heard?”

The Trouble With Wife Aggro: Aro reacts to a panel with “Wife Aggro” in the title appearing on the PAX Prime schedule: “When you title your panel ‘Wife Aggro,’ what you are saying is that this is a place for dudes and that women (unless they’re committed monogamous lesbians from one of a handful of US states or Canada, I guess?) are not invited…”

Scalzi: An Incomplete Guide to Not Creeping (at cons): “Yeah, I do meet a lot of people and/or I do find many of the people I know in a casual way to be attractive in one way or another. The very last thing I want is for them to feel that I am a creepy assbag. These are the things I do to avoid coming across as one.”

The Importance of a Gay Gamer Convention: “When you accuse these folks of segregating themselves, you forget that they were already pretty fucking segregated, and having them band together is the last thing their haters want, really — because keeping them isolated and singular is the best way to keep them quiet.”

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And then they changed the name of the “Wife Aggro” panel without changing the fact that it’s four dudes in a room talking about fatherhood. What a fucking cop-out.

It is clear that the organizers’ social circle does not contain any women, and so they have zero frame of reference and feel no need to maybe step outside their comfort zone, so instead they stand in the hole and keep on diggin’…

Here’s a link for the next one:Stories, Women & Games: “So what if there were cool games, with cool mechanics, that your significant other (be they man or woman) might actually enjoy sharing with you? What if we made games that didn’t relegate the activity to the allmighty secluded man-cave? Wouldn’t that be great?”